UPDATE PM Ludovic Orban announces classes will be suspended in the pre-university system starting on Wednesday

The National Committee for Special Emergency Situations (CNSSU) on Monday decided to close the schools and kindergartens for the March 11-March 22 interval, interim Prime Minister Ludovic Orban made the announcement on Monday. "We have decided (...) to suspend classes in the pre-university education for a definite interval, with the possibility of prolonging it, depending on the further developments. We are talking about the March 11-12 interval. This is a preventive measure," said Orban. He also said the decision was based on several considerations. "The first argument is related to an estimated increase in the risk of people returning to the country from the areas where the infection is widespread. We have information that very many Romanian citizens who found out from the mass media, even before the Italian Government actually had a chance to issue its decision, about the possibility for the Lombardy region to be closed, packed their things and it seems like many are heading to Romania," said Ludovic Orban. The PM pointed out that the decision to suspend classes was taken for a "relatively short" period of time - eight days. "We also want to see how things evolve in terms of diagnosis, how things evolve in many aspects and our main concern is to protect the pupils from any risk of contamination that might appear while they are in school," Ludovic Orban told a press conference held at the MAI (Ministry of Interior) headquarters. The Minister of Education and Research, Monica Anisie, also said, at the same press conference, that the measure of suspending classes refers to all educational units, public or private. "This measure refers to all educational institutions in the pre-university system, public or private: kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, high schools, vocational schools. All the pre-university educational units," said the Minister. AGERPRES (RO - author: Roberto Stan, Catalin Alexandru; editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia)